Archive for the ‘My own endeavours’ Category

What else should I have said?

Posted in My own endeavours on October 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

After she had finished, she said ‘good’. This happened at the recent Olympiad in Uzbekistan. Please click on the link and view all of it.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/929959269918259

M J M

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46th Chess Olympiad, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Posted in Chess, My own endeavours on September 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I decided to spend a day or two there. It was truly wonderful. Here are the pics and videos.

The car that took me there.
Me with GM Niaz Mushed
In the golf cart thing that took me to the playing hall.
The entrance
Me and Neww Jong from Thailand, main organizer there.
Me and IM Prins from Thailand
The Thai chess team
People playing chess
Moi
Prins aanalyzing his game after it had finished.
Some mascot
Me and GM Wesley So
Sahipol, president of the Thai chess federation.

Video 1

I took a taxi to go to Samarkand, which took about 5 and a half hours, We stopped off a few times. Heres one clip.

Video 2

Taxis werent allowed to take you right up to the venue so some shuttle bus/golf cart thing did instead.

Video 3

Requiring a wristband.

Video 4

The Thai Chess Team

Video 5

The hall that felt like home. It was a hive of activity.

Video 6

This I found fascinating.

Video 7

The Thai Chess team just before round 10 starts. There’s more robot fun also.

Video 8

This I enjoyed seeing.

Video 9

Round 10. Long video which shows many of the world’s best players after about 3 mins 20 secs.

Video 10

The Kuwait team. I played much chess there.

Video 11

You can see many top players in this video. Interesting viewing. That”s GM Rapport and GM Leko in the thumbnail there.

Video 12

Yet more top players here, especially from the India team.

Video 13

I am having a nice time.

Video 14

I spent nearly 7 hours walking around that day and got tired a few times. So in this video I am sitting down and recovering.

Video 15

GM Peter Svidler in the distance. I didn’t want to disturb him.

Video 16

Autograph time for the kids and a little wander around.

Video 17

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and much security.

Video 18

On the shuttle bus after much walking around.

Video 19

A walk around Samarkand before play began on the final day.

Video 20

He was very polite to me when I asked for a picture.

M J M

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Winning prizes for playing…

Posted in My own endeavours on September 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

When I lived in Kuwait in 2008, I found online and befriended a certain Khalid Hashem, who introduced me to the chess scene there, and I would not stop playing. I entered many tournaments and won prizes in one of them. I have fond memories of that tournament and always remember I kept playing the Stonewall Attack as white, and the French Defence against 1. e4 and the Dutch defence against 1. d4. If you go to the 1.55 mark in the video linked below, you can see me tripping over a chair before, shaking many hands having my photo taken and collecting my prize.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1KYit4mGvX/

M J M

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One down, one to go

Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, My own endeavours on August 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I had a very pleasant evening in the town centre last night and am happy I made a flying visit to the chess club. Tomorrow the chess continues. I will be taking the bus to Leighton Buzzard to meet FM Gary Kenworthy at The Swan Hotel. He will be bringing along scoreesheets to some of his greatest games, including his win against GM Adams, who I did not do very well against last month. The plan is to catch up as well and talk about mutual friends, of which we have many. Should be a pleasant day but it does seem that on those rare opportunities when I do come home, chess does so often take centre stage but then what else is there to do? Should I rename this post to ‘Confessions of a chess addict’.

M J M

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Sonny boy’s 3Cs -casino, cider, chess.

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, Luton Chess Club, My own endeavours on August 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

What are we to make of this post?

I say: this post does nothing to undermine, challenge, or attack the conservativism chess is oh-so proud of and is not ungentlemanly in parts.

Webmaster’s comments

Is that so?

Words of advice -words of warning

Take it from me old old chap -you shouldn’t go somewhere just to play chess, you should do other things as well. In Bangkok I used to cycle into the city to the chess club then across it to all night rock parties after I was done playing blitz -that’s the spirit!

Webmaster’s comments

We love our McCready

Paragraph of doom

Being back in my home town briefly, I couldn’t take the bus in just to play a bit of chess, could I? Why’s that? Well it doesn’t exactly make for a great night out does it? And my home town is a bit bloody depressing to say the least…I don’t want to say the name of it! Anyway, I thought, true to form, I would liven things up a bit instead. We do have videos and pics below.

Webmaster’s comments

I’m not sure I want to see these.

Disclaimer

These pre-chess club visit videos do not portray chess in a negative light and are not critical of it in places.

Webmaster’s comments

U wot?

Video 1

Walk towards the casino to play roulette.

Shot of the casino from the entrance, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in there.

Video 2

The White House Luton -the best pub in town. I will turn up at the chess club tipsy but that’s okay. It’s not the first time. In Bangkok I used to do that all the time!

Webmaster’s comments

What the blazes is this all about?

Video 3

Chit chat, most noteably about players from Luton who play at the British.

Video 4

The hour at the club and how it went.

Video 5

The loss of knowing what to do after the chess club.

The pictures that say more than 1000 words…

He plays in the A team and has had many stunning victories over the board. It is he who I played and won quickly. We have been team mates and friends for decades.
This is Peter Montgomery the club president. He beat me in the final of the Luton Chess Club Championship in 1993, and is also responsible for making me copy his openings. Lifelong friend. The number of matches we have travelled together cannot be counted.
This is a picture from my only game. As you can see, Rh4 cannot be stopped without the loss of a piece, and so he resigned.
My beloved friend Michael Josephs. Since 92 we played together and played in the county championships always. When I became B team captain, he was my board number 3 (I was board number 2). We’ve always got on like a house on fire. Michael loves to play the Kings Indian Attack and has beaten the very best in the county with it -he was super happy to see me again, and I was super happy to see him again. He is loving his chess again after many years of health difficulties.

The aftermath

Webmaster’s comments

I am reluctant to read this. Many chess players in England want him dead and he knows it!

I had to walk back into town not knowing what to think or what to do. I wasn’t expecting to be caught out by a strong sense of belonging and identity. I was somewhat preoccupied with turning up and being beaten over the board due to being so out of practice. So I went back to the pub to drink more alcohol and forget about it all, or at least try to put it into perspective before I fly off to central Asia in a few days. I don’t know when I will be back but it won’t be for a long time I expect.

Hope you enjoyed the post!

M J M

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London Chessfest 26

Posted in My own endeavours on July 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

What do we do with a hot summer Sunday in south London? Laze around in Greenwich with little to do or go down to Trafalgar Square and enjoy the company of friends and the Chessfest?

I went to it 3 years ago and was suitably impressed; Trafalgar Square is a part of London I have grown to love as the national gallery is there, and I have much time for that place, and when the chessfest rolls into town it has even more to offer. The hatched plan was to meet friend and 2100 player Mark Ruston, then play against GM Adams in a simul and this I did. I was not deterred from GM Adams being the greatest English chess player of all time! But it must be said, I have only played competitive chess once in 10 years and I don’t play online anymore, so I didn’t perform too well against both of the aforementioned…in fact it was pretty bad! Thankfully, it still remained pleasant all round despite the blazing sun and my less than impressive performances. Mark said I should blame it on the sun. Well it was 30C today and I had to leave by 3.30pm because I was already sunburnt. I saw GM Speelman, GM Adams, GM Sadler, IM Pein, GM Royal, IM Martin, and WIM Bodhana. I spoke to GM Adams, GM Sadler, GM Speelman, and IM Martin. I am happy to say, the most courteous and nicest to talk to was GM Adams. Below are pictures from the position in my game, it was a French Defence by transposition. The last picture shows writing aids 🙂

Chessfest 1: quick scan of the scene including position for my game against Mark.

Video Chessfest 2 shows GM Speelman and GM Sadler.

WIM Bodhana and great celebrations.

Chessfest 4 GM Salder teaches chess to kids

Chessfest 4: me against GM Adams. Yes that is grey haired me wondering what to do.

Chessfest 5: video full of misery and sunburn -discretionary viewing advised

M J M

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Life goes on and on and on…

Posted in My own endeavours on May 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

M J M

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On this auspicious day…

Posted in My own endeavours on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

On this day thirty-eight years ago, I played a Grandmaster for the first, but not the last, time. It was a simul yes. I was black, the opening was the Ruy Lopez closed, Chigorin variation. I was outplayed in the middlegame and lost. He did have a 100% record against the then current world champion Garry Kasparov, so it’s hardly surprising. He also wrote a critically acclaimed and very thorough book on the Ruy Lopez about a year before also.

Can you guess who it was?

M J M

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Weekend battles that lie ahead

Posted in My own endeavours on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

This weekend I am going to continue to play the engine rated 2500 that I can’t quite beat. I’m going to have to increase the time limit and become more conscious of critical moments in the game. In following GM Gawian Jones’s recommendations in his book on the Grand Prix Sicilian I get middle games with the better position but just cannot convert them into winning attacks no matter how hard I try.

My level of focus and will power are very high. And I analyse all games to see where I went wrong. I’m up against it but well up for it. The program being used is Lucas Chess. Let’s see if I can nick a draw this weekend. Probably I shall post some videos soonish. I don’t like posting ones where I lose, but whatever, the calibre of the play is high and the games are instructive.

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Friday night at the chess club and what came of it

Posted in My own endeavours on March 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In the previous post I mentioned that I gave up on playing online chess because it’s too easy, took on some engines, the one 2200 I beat, the one 2400 I beat but the one 2500 I could not. I felt sharpened up and fancied it down the chess club. How did it go? I enjoyed the company of all present and much socialising occurred before play began, I started drinking cider too.

We had a 9-round Swiss and I was very friendly at all times. My results were distinctly average though. I outplayed nearly everyone, winning with a devastating attack more than once but I just couldn’t get a grip of myself and adjust to the time limit (3m 2s) enough, sometimes losing on time, sometimes panicking not to and blowing the result. I had my shit together but it wasn’t enough over the board but failed to adjust to the tournament conditions. I couldn’t be bothered to see what my final score was, probably about 50%. To some degree my chess was anti-climactic.

Most importantly, life long member Peter told me it was lovely to see me back and he really meant it. In return I was complimentary too. Long term friend Poompong also very politely asked me about my life and my family unit, and so on. He was genuinely interested and spoke to me like a true friend.

To be happy just to be there and then valued as a member still, and treated as a true friend was what mattered most of the evening. I left feeling very touched indeed. It was a great night out.

M J M

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